Question

One or more plants could die during the experiment. If that happens, how will you account for it?

Mark an X for that plant in the data table.

Write a comment about the plant’s death in your lab notebook.

Exclude the plant when you compute the average height of the whole group of plants.

Exclude another plant from the other group to balance things out.

Answer 1

Choose the first two and the third — but not the fourth.

- Mark an X for that plant in the data table. — Yes. Record the death clearly in your data.
- Write a comment about the plant’s death in your lab notebook. — Yes. Note when it died and any likely cause or observations.
- Exclude the plant when you compute the average height of the whole group of plants — with a clear caveat: report the reduced sample size (n) and explain that dead plants were excluded from height averages. Alternatively, if your research question includes mortality effects, report mortality separately (or treat dead plants as height = 0 only if that makes sense for your analysis).
- Exclude another plant from the other group to balance things out. — No. Don’t remove valid data to “balance” groups. Instead report unequal sample sizes and use appropriate analysis (e.g., note mortality rates, use statistical tests that handle unequal n, or repeat the experiment if necessary).